Shohei Ohtani Makes MLB History Again, Starting on the Mound and Hitting a Leadoff Homer

(CNA San Diego, 20th, Comprehensive Foreign Report) Major League Baseball (MLB) Los Angeles Dodgers' Japanese star Shohei Ohtani once again fully demonstrated his two-way skills today, delivering outstanding performances in both pitching and hitting. According to the Associated Press, this was Ohtani's first time in four weeks starting as both a pitcher and a hitter in the same game. "Shohei the Hitter" launched a home run in his first at-bat in the first inning, while "Ohtani the Pitcher" pitched 5 innings, giving up only 3 hits, helping the team to a 4-0 shutout victory over the host San Diego Padres. In today's game, Shohei Ohtani not only hit his 8th home run of the season but also lowered his ERA to 0.73. Although he admitted his pitching didn't feel ideal today, he was still quite satisfied with his all-around performance. The Dodgers' win today also secured a series victory against the Padres, with Ohtani's performance on both sides of the ball once again being the biggest contributor to the win. Through his interpreter, Ohtani stated, "I was quite uncertain before this game because my feel wasn't very good. Although the result was good, as you all saw, the process wasn't perfect... I have high standards for my own performance, and I didn't fully meet them in this game." Shohei Ohtani is the only player in MLB history to hit a first-inning, first-at-bat home run as a pitcher, and he has now done it twice. The first time was in Game 4 of last year's National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, where he hit three homers in a single game and earned the win, hailed as one of the greatest single-game performances in history. This time, "Ohtani the Pitcher" also had to thank "Shohei the Hitter" for helping the team get an early lead. Through his interpreter, Ohtani said, "As a pitcher, the goal is to not let the opponent score first, so I'm happy I did that, and I'm also happy the team scored first." And that run support was enough: Ohtani has only allowed 4 earned runs in 49 innings this season, keeping a clean sheet in 5 of his 8 starts. Although he retired the first 9 batters through 3 innings, Ohtani used 52 pitches to do so. This led to him ultimately throwing only 88 pitches and being pulled before completing 6 innings for the first time this season. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, "This just proves again that we have to be careful with his workload, we can't be careless. But he is really special."